Let's just start with acknowleding that this is one of the biggest one of these that I've ever written. I have a strange compulsion to have my total books read for the year to end in a 5 or a 0 (the most ideal numbers, in my opinion). So when I was running out of books to read in mid-December I decided to up my reading goal ,which had to be by 5. SO, that led to reading a few shorter books and another book to Luke and a couple more to my list so that I could hit that extra 5, giving me 23 finished books in December, my highest monthly total for any year since 2011 (and given my total number of books read in a year in the years before that...safe to say this was my highest month since sometime in childhood when the books I was reading only took a day to read).
SO, this is a long one but it's a good one, maybe. My 2022 isn't off to a great start, it's been a bit hit or miss but December was pretty good so at least the first half of this list is solid!
I post about books sometimes on Instagram here and keep my Goodreads very updated here, always welcome new friends to either! And I'm linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy!
Now for what I've been reading!
Winter Street, Winter Stroll, Winter Storms, and Winter Solstice by Elin Hilderbrand
These are a perennial favorite of mine, I've read each of them every single year since they were released (which was 2014 for the first one!). I wrote a post about the series back here and always enjoy my annual check-in with the Quinns. Although, on this many reread and maybe just checking some math/age errors. 4.5 Stars
Frankie & Bug by Gayle Forman
This was a quick middle grade novel I picked up and read in a day, middle grade is good for that! Frankie and Bug are both going through some things and think they have no friends until they end up spending a summer living near each other and becoming very good friends while also trying to solve a murder. 3 Stars
The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas by Ann Voskamp
My annual Advent read and one that helps my Christmas-spinny brain and never ending to-do list settle for at least a few minutes a day! 4 Stars
The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
This book was a bit of a disappointment and especially because it's what I was reading on Christmas. I was hoping a bit more Center Stage which is my man ballet reference instead this was a darker turn about Paris ballerinas who seem to cover ever conceivable problem and social issue in their lives. Ballerinas apparently have a lot of drama. 2.5 Stars
Who Gets the Drumstick?: The Story of the Beardsley Family by Helen Beardsley
The original Yours, Mine, and Ours was a frequent movie choice of ours as kids, we had a version tapped off the tv during a Christmas movie marathon and I can still tell you where many of the commercial breaks were and even what some of the commercials were when I watched our DVD version (it's just not the same without the vintage Mario commercials). I hadn't read this book until now and appreciated a look behind the curtain of that movie. The real Beardsleys seemed to be very religious and apparently the merging of their 2 families happened seamlessly. Which I don't quite believe. 3.25 Stars
The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley
This was the book that I picked for Matt to give me for Christmas (we both agree that he shouldn't be picking out books to give me, just better for all that I do it) and it was an enjoyable story about a tiny island in the Chesapeake Bay and how they all seem to be pretending that this woman's husband is alive when he clearly died in a shipwreck. A journalist is there for a different story and then stumbles upon the dead husband story which he thinks will be a good idea to make into a podcast...without the island people knowing. Suffice it to say...when the island gets good internet that might not be a decision without consequences. But I did enjoy it and learning about this tiny island (which isn't real but is based on a real one). 3.75 Stars
It's a Wonderful Wife: A Novella by Camille Pagan
This is one of those short books I read to help me hit my goal (you all, we're not considering that cheating, we're just not) and by an author that I have enjoyed in the past (I very strongly remember reading one of her books in our tent, after a HORRIBLE rain storm passed through. Tent camping is HORRIBLE to do in heavy rain). Bailey George, a small town business owner living her own It's a Wonderful Life story, in which she talks about enjoying that movie but never acknowledging that her name, and story, is almost just like the movie. 3.25
Jesus Always: Embracing Joy in His Presence by Sarah Young
This was my annual devotional for the year and my 2nd or 3rd time through it in the past 10 years. I've gotten in the habit of reading it nearly first thing in the morning, after Matt's left but before I do my workout. Helps start my days off right. I really enjoy her devotionals, own 3 of them that I rotate between. 4.75 Stars
A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
This is the book I have decided is my all-time favorite and I read it every year just before New Years because a good chunk of the story takes place around a New Years Eve. I was a bit reluctant to start this one again but then was drawn back into the story, again, and sped through it. Takes place at the beginning and end of the 1930s, Lily Dane, a young college girl when it starts and a bit older and wiser in the other timeline. The glamour and fun of the 1930s and life at a small beach community and, of course, romance. 4.75 Stars
All About Us by Tom Ellen
This is technically a Christmas story but my hold didn't come in until after that but I had waited so dang long for it and I didn't want it to sit on my TBR for another year so I read it. It's a England set story at Christmas which is a WHOLE genre that I generally enjoy. A bit of A Christmas Carol with a man going through his Christmas past, present, and future to figure out where things went a bit wrong. Pretty much exactly what I expected it to be. 3.25 Stars
If the Fates Allow: A Short Story by Rainbow Rowell
THIS BOOK. I read it because it was free on Kindle Unlimited, a trial of which I started to read It's a Wonderful Wife and I wanted to take advantage of that and, yes, I wanted an easy title to help my numbers at the start of the year and I've enjoyed Rainbow Rowell in the past. WELL, HEAVY on the COVID, very heavy. Like, we should wear masks when we are TWENTY FEET APART and outside. Come on. But then it's ok to rip them off 5 minutes later because you decide to make out. That was the December 2020 storyline. Slightly less crazy in the December 2021 storyline but still, I don't need to read about COVID when we are still living it, especially to these extremes. I finished it because I needed to see how ridiculous it got. 1 Star
The Wicked Widow by Beatriz Williams
This was a MUCH more fun book, as Beatriz Williams tend to be. I should reread this whole Wicked series because the details on the first especially are rather fuzzy but I still got through this one ok. Prohibition time, a continuing romance and a woman 60 years later looking into suspicious things. I, of course, enjoy when accounting plays into a story. SOMEDAY I am also going to reread all of Beatriz Williams and keep track of how they all fit together. There is an overlapping character between this and A Hundred Summers and, for the life of me, I can't figure it all out. Those darn Schuylers popping up everywhere. Anyways, I enjoyed this one and read the last ~100 pages pretty quickly to see how it would end. 4 Stars
Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer by Rax King
Another one I have rather mixed feelings about. I appreciated her essays on things like chain restaurants and some other pop culture things from the 90s and 00s. More words than you'd expect someone could get out on Creed and Meatloaf (the musical bands). She talks down to Warm Vanilla Sugar from Bath and Body Works, a scent I very much enjoy for the Thanksgiving - New Years holiday run but positively about The Sims video game which I did play at a time. But really, most of this book is about her sex life and how she's really ok with it even though she really seems like she isn't. She's working too hard to convince you she's ok with it. It just got...weird. And also, not what I thought this book was going to be about? I like Warm Vanilla Sugar but I'd prefer reading more about how she doesn't than a couple of (detailed) chapters about her (varied) sex life. 2 Stars
Read with Luke
Merry Christmas from Betsy by Carolyn Haywood
We read all the Betsy books up to this point and this was an accumulation of the Christmas stories in those (although I swear they threw in a few new ones too). It was charming and fun to read around Christmas 3.75 Stars
How Winston Delivered Christmas by Alex T. Smith
I read this to Luke last year and to both boys this year (Sam's first chapter book!). The adventures of a mouse trying to get a boy's Christmas letter to Santa on Christmas Eve, told in 24½ chapters which we, mostly, read one a day in December. Cute. 3.5 Stars
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
An annual reread for us that never fails to bring me to tears. Imogen might get the Nativity story better than any of us. 4.75 Stars
Skylark by Patricia MacLachlan
This was a short one I picked up to read to Luke. We had read Sarah, Plain and Tall a few months ago and he liked it more than I expected so we read the next. I think the tv movie is a combination of those two books. I had never read beyond Skylark but there are more and Luke is interested so I think we'll keep going! 3.5 Stars
The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian #4: Journey to the Center of That Thing by Jonathan Messinger
Our first chapter book of 2022! Luke has been listing to the Finn Caspian podcast for at least 4 years and it's one of his favorites and so we have read all the chapter books. I cannot believe the long leash Finn and his friends get TO EXPLORE SPACE. There were literally no grown-ups AT ALL in this one, as the kids were INSIDE a planet nobody had ever visited before. It's fine. They brought back an alien and were almost eaten by another. It's fine. 3.25 Stars
PHEW. I'd love to hear what you've been reading lately!
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